Castlebest Vs HSBC**WON**

[Castlebest]

Hi all, I have been playing letter ping pong with the HSBC since last Summer (2006) so its about time to get serious.

 

I have all of my charges worked out (over £3000) and the correspondence I have to date says everything I needed to say in a preliminary letter so will be sending an LBA tomorrow (recorded of course) and they cant say I haven't tried to sort this out amicably before resorting to the law.

 

Silly me, I thought businesses looked after their clients and tried to help them when they needed it. They obviously have different rules these days.

[lateralus]

welcome to the forum and good luck with your claim!

[Castlebest]

Thank you Lateralus, I have been reading the CAG site there is some great stuff here, information and help, the threads are fantastic they really give you a feel of what is going to happen and what to do I wish I had known about this site years ago.

It seems the HSBC twist and turn and use every trick in the book to get out of paying but if you stick to your guns and tell them where to get off they will pay because the last thing they want is to go to court and start setting legal presidents, god forbid they should have to act within the law.

Well I’ve had a belly full of them. After loosing a business a few years ago I got only one suggestion from them, declare bankruptsy (very helpful ), I refused on the basis that it was the easy option for them not me and the outstanding debt wasn’t that much.

I have received absolutely no help from the HSBC whatsoever, in fact they have been downright obstructive, never the less I have repaid a large part of the debt and now I am going to recover what I can from who I can starting with the HSBC and progressing through my cards.

I will be quite disappointed if they settle, being a Quantity Surveyor I have been in court quite a few times and enjoy it , one has to get ones kicks where one can when someone else has all your money .

[Castlebest]

I have been reading about contractual interest, my claim is for the period January 2003 to present, I think the interest rate would have changed a few times over this period.

Is there any way I can find out what the rates were and when they changed over this period or is it safer to stick to the county court 8%?

I probably have most if not all of the interest rate notification letters but I’m not sure and I need to be sure to go into a court.

 

Thanks

 

Pete

[ladybird17]

for contractual interest use Vampiress' spreadsheet, and just use their current interest rate - the likelihood of them trying to work it all out with all the different interest rates over the years is ...around nil. There is a thread about spreadsheets with contractual interest, so it may be worth you having a look at it - but don't get daunted by the some of the posts in it, some people want to make it FAR more complicated than it really is!

 

If I have been of any help, please click the scales at the bottom left. Thanks!

[lateralus]

also, just as a thought - are you going to do the business account as well? - the steps are the same with some slight variation but plenty of help available with that as well if you are going to do it - just make sure you use the right advice for the each claim.

[Castlebest]

Lateralus, I have looked at my old business accounts as well, there were 3 in all and all HSBC.

Funnily enough there are not that many charges on them despite me "breaking the rules" on many occasions. I can only think of two reasons for this, firstly I was transferring money around virtually on a daily basis especially towards the end and I think as long as there is plenty of movement in the account it doesn’t (or didn’t then) flash the alarms or secondly my catastrophe happened in 1997, this wasn’t long after the HSBC took over the Midland Bank and I don’t think they wanted to rock the boat too much in the first few years.

As you can see this was also well over six years ago and the old Midland Bank charges were microscopic compared with what we are having deducted now so I think I will let sleeping dogs lie with the halcyon days of banking when there was at least one person in each branch who knew what they were doing and didn’t have to refer to the "rule book" or look like some character from Little Britain and say "The computer says no...."

[Castlebest]

OK I give up... where is the thread for contractual interest?, I have been here hours and keep getting drawn into posts about other things... this is an amazing site... cant wait to get my own claim along a bit further... yes I sent my LBA today so sit back for a couple of weeks and have a laff at photocopied letters if I get any...

Will be interesting to see if I get any response because I think I have a full set of the standard letters from my ping pong session in the summer, we will see if anyone has a brain or if they are using the "rule book"

[lateralus]

firstly, try the search on the blue strip above the posts - you'll get lots and lots of stuff there. but also, this is the link that started it all, i think: Why is no one claiming the contractual rate of interest??? (1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page)

 

 

and, see how bong is getting along with her question in the question and answer section at the bottom of the forum:can we have a new section in the forum for links to claims with contractual interest (1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page)

 

and for future refernce: keep this handy: Can't Find What You're Looking For? Here's A Complete A-z Index (1 2)

Michael Browne

this is from that list:Spreadsheets: Downloadable Simple & Contractual

 

best of luck, happy reading.

[Castlebest]

Thanks again Lateralus, flippin heck thats a big thread but I think Iv'e got the gist now. Im going for the current published HSBC contractural rate of 15.9%, adds about £300 to my claim over the county court 8%. Im getting close to the magic £5000 in all now let them worry about that now though not my problem what they have taken from my account.

 

Couple of things I have noticed though, The HSBC sent me a nice little leaflet entitled "Price list and interest rates" (its dated 1st December 2006) during my ping pong session it lists all of the HSBC's charges list a few as follows;

 

Overdraft arrangement fee

1st overdraft in 6 months - free

Subsequent overdrafts - £ 25.00

 

They refuse to give me an ovedraft but delight in charging me £150.00 a month in penalty charges.

 

Return Fees

We may not be able to grant every request you make for an overdraft.

Where we decline an informal overdraft request we will not charge an arrangement fee but a return fee will be payable for considering and returning payment requests e.g. cheque, standing order, direct debit etc.

Up to £10.00 - no charge

Up to £25.00 - £10.00 per item

Above £25.00 - £ 25.00 per item

 

Wondering why they charge me £30.00 per item ? this leaflet is going into my court bundle for sure

 

Pete

[Castlebest]

to coin a phrase from nettie.... "tumtetumtetum".... isnt 14 days a long time only on my 4th day here lol... but reading way too late into the nite... this is so addictive....

[Castlebest]

Gawd lost my own thread for a minute there ... Found it way back on page 5... Amazing what goes on while your waiting 14 days.. Anyway..

Was just reading TracyJ's thread and Bong made a comment that I thought I should paste here because Tracy's a winner !! YEAH !!!!!

Quote from Bong

"you aint gonna like this tracey... stopped cheques and specials are valid fees."

I have these in my schedule of charges at the moment at £30.00 a time, I thought these were valid on the basis that the reversal of a payment is an automatic computerised operation and there is no way it costs a bank £30.00 to do this?... please correct me if I’m wrong

pete

Quick update while I’m at it;

• 7days gone 7 days to go until MCOL, wishing I had gone straight to MCOL from my previous correspondence now
  
• Basic parachute account set up (Co-Op Bank), the day after I went into Halifax to get a new card for my deposit account because my old one was broken and didn’t work in ATM’s, they have asked me to go see them about a proper current account. They asked me, I didn’t say a word so would be ignorant to refuse makes you wonder about big brother tho….lol
  
• MCOL is about ready to go so just waiting on the ignorance of HSBC
  
• Have been researching interest, the types and how to recover them I think I understand most of it now but if I’m right I don’t really agree with how CAG are suggesting it should be claimed (so I’m probably wrong lol) Think someone needs to write a sticky idiots guide to interest.

[lateralus]

i thought i had written exactly that(lol) - i even called it an idiot's guide at first but decided someone might take offense - anyway, have you seen my "beginner's" guide - but it may be even more basic than you mean - it was really only a way to help people through the spreadsheet - and it has by all accounts - nothing about contractual because i have no personal knowledge of it. anyway my beginner's guide is in honeygie's thread - post number 9, she's been on-line lately so it won't be far away - need to dash just now. you won't be up anyway - you're a night owl!

 

here is it, page 1, post 26. as for your charges - are you worried about what you've put - just check the desc. of charges link - it's in there.HONEYGIE sees you HSBC! (1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page)

 

anyway, cas - just a thought - why don't you put something together - that's why it's called a self help group. people just contribute when they think they can - if you get a grip on it - write it up and (i didn't know this for a LONG time - i thought there was some guy called "sticky" writing all this stuff - turns out - if you write something very, very helpful - the administrators make it a "sticky" - something that is very helpful and applies over a large range of people - not just to a couple of them - so, get busy writing something up that makes it easer to understand - cuz i think you mean more than what i put on honey's thread.

that should keep you busy!!!!

[Castlebest]

Lattie there are so many opinions here about interest its untrue I wouldn’t dare write anything "official"

I am posting on the threads that are talking about interest though, if nothing else to get other peoples views on it.

I have my own views I can and will take to see the judge if I get that far but I could never tell anyone I’m right except the judge if he agrees then I will write a post (and dance nekkid outside DG's offices maybe painted in woad) added that bit cuz yer a yank

Like many things here we suspect we are right, HSBC wont argue we aren’t right in court so we must assume we are and at the end of the day if they send a cheque what does it matter who is right.

When the OFT gets off its fat arse and tells us all who is right then the fun will begin... I suspect foul play there too lol... I’m just an old cynic

 

pete

[lateralus]

well, i might have done things differently had it been my account - it wasn't - it was no.1 son who during that period was especially bad with money - he was quite happy to get charges of 1500 plus o/d interest of 300 plus 8% interest of 300 and court fee back. he put 2k on his managed loan and now i'm trying to talk him into trying to get some of that interest back - but he needs to sort out another acct. first.

maybe if it were mine - i would have pursued the contract. int. but a few months back it was a pretty new idea, just as now lots are talking about the managed loan interest but not seen any real success yet - so we are biding our time a little. but i do see dg getting very shirty lately with o/d interest - it has to have been done correctly to defend it and as for contr. int. - who knows - i think they've paid out on a few but it still is a little iffy for my liking.

very best of luck on yours - just don't scare off the newbies. if you want to keep busy - watch for new ones - with 0 or 1 replies and point them to the faqs and step by steps. it's very satisfying to help someone get it back. and much easier if they get it right from the beginning than to try to correct mistakes later on. have a good week!

[rob-the-viking]

Hi castlebest, you must be about due to submit your MCOL! Mine's due on Monday, I think we're on about the same schedule. Hope you're giving them hell mate!!

[Castlebest]

Hiya Rob, yep mines Monday too so here we go

[Castlebest]

Quick update, Just filed here after a bit of a delay, the wheels of fortune don’t run so smooth sometimes , Ho Hum but done now so now we wait again lol

pete

[Castlebest]

Claim issued 08/03/07... one thing that did strike me, I used "castlebest" when I joined MCOL (its a web site I never use my real name when joining a web site) and now they have used "Castlebest v HSBC" as my claim title cant see this affecting my claim its just a title... but would be grateful if anyone has a different opinion.

Thanks

Pete

[Castlebest]

Here we go, claim Acknowledged 13/03/07 whoo hoo... this actually gets quite boring in between bouts of excitement

Hopefully I will get the acknowledgement papers through the post in the next couple of days so I can send out confirmation copies of my schedule of charges to the court and the solicitor then I can go back to sleep until they defend.

 

pete

[lateralus]

it's so nice when peeps know what they are doing.

[Castlebest]

Really laffin.. latty hun... its all down to you and netty... many many thanks.

 

pete

[lateralus]

at least you listen

[Castlebest]

Well there’s a turn up for the books, I got a new letter from uncle Colin today, I better back track a bit because I haven’t been posting about uncle Colin he is just an annoying HSBC drone.

· 8th Feb LBA sent

· 16th Feb Standard uncle Colin letter "we are looking into it this year, next year, sometime never" (I have 4 of these now laffin)

· 7th March MCOL submitted (Had to wait until I was paid)

· 8th March Claim issued

· 13th March Claim Acknowledged

· 13th March New Uncle Colin letter, as follows;

I refer to my letter dated 16th February 2007 and apologise for not yet having fully completed my investigations.

I will contact you again by 10th April 2007 and expect to be able to provide you with a full response at this time, thank you for your continued patience

oops too late, I filed my claim, my money will be out of your pocket and back in my pocket by the 10th of April (give or take a few days) let me know your findings then.

I have replied and it wasn’t pretty, ho hum not my problem.

As an aside, I hate stupid people, and I hate people who think I'm stupid too even more.... that of course is a without prejudice comment and if the cap fits wear it.

pete

[lateralus]

i don't think you are stupid!